The truth about a complex built for veterans and the middle class and how it has evolved through the years to become one of the more interesting and controversial of New York stories.

Comment Policy

All comments to posts have to await approval. Approval does not happen immediately. NOTE: Comments reflect the opinions of the person writing them and should not be assumed to reflect the opinion of the blog.

Management has two priorities: 1) Making sure money is made, hence upgrading and filling up apartments is their goal. "Amenities" are important in selling the place, though few residents use them. 2) If someone needs medical attention, Public Safety will be there, if alerted.

Quality of life issues are not that important, however. Things like the carpet rule or outsider dogs. These "rules" tend to be ignored, on purpose it seems. So you will see a lot that isn't taken care of properly, and complaints will be met with a creative excuse and a smile.

"Peace and quiet" must be a cruel joke, though this property is sold that way. There can be no peace and quiet as ALL apartments must be upgraded, which includes the installation of an AC unit below the window. Aside from the continual construction about the neighborhood, there is a new and noisy subway extension being built along East 14 st and the shut down of the L line. "Choosing" to live in NYC, now the newest mantra, is a fabrication when the talk is of ST and PCV, which was traditionally quiet, with no construction noise.

Though money was always important, it is now more important than ever. Money rules many things, as you will find.

At this point, 30 years into living here and seeing many things, I can state that Management and their reps are BS-ing us. I can't say that loudly enough: We are being BS-ed. I don't see any genuine change, though the "selling" of this place is intense. Few of the "rules" will be enforced, as Management doesn't want to lose customers or potential customers. Where personal integrity is a hallmark of an excellent management style, this integrity is not seen in enforcing some of the rules.

About those "club cars" we see going this way and that way, and outside of Stuy Town or Peter Cooper Village:

BREAKING NEWS: CompassRock Out, New Property Management to Take Over

Of importance: Rick Hayduk, the new property manager, will live in the complex with his family. He will also hold several "Meet and Greets" with residents, starting this Saturday.

============

You're Invited to Join Blackstone and Meet PCVST's New General Manager!

PCVST tenants are invited to enjoy refreshments at a "Meet-And-Greet" event on January 9th!

Blackstone is hosting a "Meet-and-Greet" event on Saturday, January 9th at the tented basketball courts at Stuyvesant Town at 10am to introduce Rick Hayduk as PCVST's new General Manager. We hope you can join.

Additional "Meet-and-Greets" with Rick will be held on:• Tuesday, January 12th, 2pm at the Community Center(RSVP required: register by calling 212.598.5297 or emailing slaubner@abigailmichaels.com)• Tuesday, January 12th, 3pm at the Community Center(RSVP required: register by calling 212.598.5297 or emailing slaubner@abigailmichaels.com)• Thursday, January 14th, 6:30pm at the tented basketball courts at Stuyvesant Town

44 comments:

Anonymous
said...

That explains why the said the Oval is a real asset. The events they will throw that people can come stay in their luxury resort where the homes are going fast at $3 million. Mr Hayduck's previous Property Manager President job with LXR. This is the future of the former one-of-a-kind working middle class community in a Park -- and it needs the ferry station or it will not be successful. So the taxpayer funded, polluting, noisy ferry station is to make this a destination stop. Taxpayer money is funding the business vision to maximize the developers profits and minimize the middle working class. Also they could not operate this without the new bunker construction of the long gone open space.

What is most galling is the secrecy and deceit by those who are supposed to keep tenants informed and protected. Dan and the TA board. If this was a good thing for tenants they would not have operated in secrecy.

Blackstone has now made public their path to bettering the ‘tenant experience’, establishing their own mgmt. company. Blackstone previously asked of us (tenants), via a survey, what our hot-button items are. You have detailed many times what you think are the primary complex-wide issues. With these, Blackstone should be able to understand what issues require immediate attention.

From my experiences of taking over an asset upon purchase, it is imperative to understand what you can do to show the tenants that the ‘new boss ain’t like the old boss’, that the new owners are dedicated to improving the tenant experience. And this requires an immediate response to tenant hot-button issues (a sort of shock-and-awe).

One issue for your readers that I think is extremely important: please go visit the new property manager at one of the meet-and-greets. And advise him that the TA voice is not your voice. Tell him that you have your own issues and concerns regarding the management of the complex. And ask him to schedule quarterly open forums where you can continually meet with him and his staff. If not enough tenants meet with the new manager directly, it allows him to assume that the TA’s voice is the dominant voice that needs placating and allows Blackstone to cut out direct discussions with the tenancy and only speak with the TA.

Mr Hayduk has no experience in long term residents and Blackstone has no interest in multiple generations of middle working class raising families.

"As president of the resort for the past two years, Rick Hayduk is playing point on changes these days. His biggest goal is to ensure the resort reflects the energy and vibrancy that he sees in Boca Raton, which includes a mix of talented young entrepreneurs and tech workers, plus energetic retirees and nationally successful business people who have second homes in the area.The resort is frequently seen as a backdrop on financial news networks since it is home to major business conferences.

While conventions are a major source of business, Hayduk is also emphasizing staycations and memberships. The FlowRider and surf lessons are examples of how the resort is more family friendly and there’s a DJ playing in the evening.

The beach club, just across the Intracoastal Waterway, is connected to the main resort by shuttle buses and boats. "

http://sfbwmag.com/departments/boca-raton/pretty-pink

In other words, no more peace, tranquility of an 80 acre park in the middle of the most energetic place in the world, New York City. Light up Stuyvesant Town with "energy, noise, events" because there is not enough of that in NYC and peace and quiet has no place here. If you want a home with peace and quiet, move to the suburbs. Maybe Dan and Susan will come clean about the ferry now and keep tenants informed of EVERYTHING even if we are going to oppose it.

11:37 AM, I understand your gloom and doom, but hopefully the new management will realize that they are running a residential apartment complex where people who work for a living reside and need some peace and quiet. We can always hope and pray that the new management isn't as callous and crude as the old money-grabbing incompetents.

11:50 AM: you are so damned right! We should not let the new management think that the TA speaks on our behalf. The TA has done absolutely NOTHING on our behalf - at least not in a good way. We will be well rid of the odious Goradnick when his third term finally is over, and when that happens the TA will lose its controller. Management needs to know that only a minority (tiny minority) of tenants are members of the TA and that those of us who have been around long enough to know their history absolutely despise what the TA has become since Garodnick took control of it.

Conventions, casinos and hotel style resort living is the Blackstone Cuomo vision. Study the new managers history of work, a lot of over-communication press releases and memos to long term residents while enticing short term tenant guests, second homes, corporate apartments, time shares, students, transients by every definition of the word.

Convention tourism and boondoggle money is what they are after. Get rid of the authentic neighborhoods and bring in the chain stores, malls, and convention crap. They tried to pull this off in Sunnyside. De Blasio argued for affordable housing and Cuomo slapped him down the next day with conventions center plans, remember?

"Jimmy Van Bramer, the councilman whose district encompasses “every inch” of Sunnyside Yards, has expressed concern about the de Blasio plan and on Wednesday reacted to the Doctoroff proposal with horror.

“I have never had one person come to me in western Queens and tell me that what we really need is one of the largest convention centers ever built smack dab in the middle of our neighborhood,” he told Capital."

So there, this is why they robbed us of our Roberts victory and did not restore our homes to the proper rent before the illegal jacked up rents. This was always their plan. Everyone who said the settlement was "good" is in on the con. Good for Jimmy Van Bremer, for truly representing his constituents and calling out the powerful offices on their con on the People of NYC.

The Ice Rink is only the beginning of what Blackstone Ivanhoe Cambridge will be building, construction, and commercialization adding what they call amenities and we call noise pollution and dead chopped trees. The article mirrors what Dan and the entire TA Board did to the Oval Tree Park.

Boca resort works to break out of time capsulePosh property adds new technology, programs to lure young leisure guests

As part of a new "luxury with an edge" strategy, which includes targeting families, the resort at 501 E. Camino Real will unveil an ice skating rink Nov. 1 to kick off the holiday season. The pink-colored rink will operate through Jan. 1.

Well, he's gonna live here. That's a good sign. I think the late, great Bill Potter was the last manager that actually lived on the premises.

Hope he's in my building. It'll be the only one with working washers and dryers, a clean recycling area, rugs on every floor, and plumbers that come right away when the toilets overflow! But I'm in The Stuy, he'll certainly be in The Coop...

Best if we keep ourselves well informed and eyes wide open. We can't rely on hopes and prayers. This is cold, callous, mad man Michael Bloomberg's billionaire NYC he is still creating.

Going to the meet and greet and telling them that Susan Steinberg, Kristen Adahl, Margaret Salacan, the TA Board does not represent our Tenant's Voice.

Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridge know this already. Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridge know the TA Board represents the Berlin Rosen promoted, Paul Weiss Rifkind supported Michael Bloomberg vision they have all been working towards since MetLife sold us out.

Still they need to hear it from us, that we do not let the Susan Steinberg TA Board speak for us, decide for us, negotiate for us.

"Mr. Gray currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Hilton Worldwide and is a board member of Brixmor Properties. He is also Chairman of the Board of Harlem Village Academies and a board member of Trinity School. Mr. Gray and his wife, Mindy, established the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine focused on the prevention and treatment of certain genetically caused cancers.

Mr. Gray received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School, as well as a BA in English from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa."

>>In other words, no more peace, tranquility of an 80 acre park in the middle of the most energetic place in the world, New York City. Light up Stuyvesant Town with "energy, noise, events" because there is not enough of that in NYC and peace and quiet has no place here. If you want a home with peace and quiet, move to the suburbs.<<

This would be a major mistake, if Blackstone heads in this direction. Unless, they are confident they can ride out the complaints as the younger crowd, they hope, will favor new amenities and special event gimmicks. I wonder if Hayduk was one of those "suits" I overheard at the Oval calling it a "great resource."

They already had moved in market rate tenants on the property ready to operate businesses on the planned developed waterfront that the politicians are hiding the plans from us because keeping us in our homes is not included in the REBNY Committee Partnership plan for NYC waterfront on the west and east side. There is one of these tenants in the building next to me who is mad the MR purchase takeover that relied on kicking out 85% of RS tenants fell through. Come hell or high water the MR want the RS out.

The Committee and Partnership and AVNY and REBNY are turning New York into a "Recreational Tourist Trap" instead of the wonderful,artistic, unique, "Tourist Attraction of character" it used to be.

Think Disney meets Atlantis cheese factor with tourist traps all along the coasts of the once beautiful, unique famous skyline. Their Recreational Tourist Trap Playground plan does not include real New Yorkers currently living here. We are in their way and the politicians are helping them to move us out of the way.

Either that or the politicians are completely and utterly inept, incapable of doing the job of the office they hold, because the results are that the constituents are losing record numbers of homes and small businesses.

>>Mr Hayduk: please take down the rink and move it to the Oval and thank you. The oval is furthest from all buildings and homes. Restore our Sat and Sun morning peace. TY.<<

Moving the ice rink to the Oval would be a disaster and probably mar for a long time the grounds there (aside from being costly). One would also hear the noise bouncing around the buildings, as proven by the concerts that are held there.

I would also like to add, the workers here in general need to exhibit common curtesy through out the complex. Quite often we are considered a nuisance while golf carts, trucks, back haulers, security vehicles drive around here like the sidewalk is considered their fast track. No tenants = No Jobs

Nothing has been done yet in the areas where we had chess tables before. I suspect some money-making enterprise will arise there, like vending machines. But it would be nice to have similar tables and seating there again.

7:31 AM, I don't know what building you live in, but I suspect that the whacko MR tenant who is mad that the MR purchase, along with eviction of RS, didn't go through is not representative of MR tenants. I think you should just ignore the fool and not let him/her get under your skin.

"The workers hate us and this is clear. Most of the men cleaning the buildings despise tenants and have admitted so."

I don't blame them for hating the new tenants (if you can call them that) because these are the tenants who leave all kinds of dreck in the recycling area. They leave rotting, stinking food; they put all their shit in the recycling bins and don't care about what is supposed to go where; they leave pizza boxes in the halls; and, they are disrespectful and boorish and think the porters are beneath they and are their servants.

Chess tables yes! Nothing translates more than a quit mind challenging game of park like serenity. I understand that a game that has existed for centuries has no future since you don't have a remote, head phones or a social media platform to boast on. So while you wait for your hoverboard to catch fire, your newest roommate to come up with his 1/6 of the rent, or your Oval Studies membership to lapse. Please remember there are people who live here not in a constant state of transitioning.

Until There Is Silence No More

The Tenants Association and our councilman Dan Garodnick have mysteriously remained silent about a purported incident that occurred on July 12: the mugging by a group of individuals of someone right by Peter Cooper Village, along 20th Street.

The TA is basically done. Tenants can complain, but any action is negligible. The TA is effectively dead.

----------

"We'll be introducing a new process to identify registered dogs thus enabling Public Safety Officers to clearly approach offending dog owners. The registration will hang from the leash handle; clearly identifying the dog as registered.

"If the dog is not registered by May 1; a summons will be issued at the point of contact. If we learn the dog owner is not a resident, they will be escorted off the property."

Rick Hayduk, CEO and General Manager of PCVST. Letter to Barry Shapiro, February 2016.

STR here: I have been around since the inception of this dog policy and I have NEVER seen anyone escorted out of ST or PCV with their non-lanyard dog. But I have seen, many times, a dog owner from outside, and his/her dog, casually walking through ST or PCV.

THINKING of Renting in PCVST?

Read Yelp reviews to find out what it's like living here. Please note: All apartments are currently "rent-stabilized" but that doesn't prevent apartments from going up to 4K to 6K a month and even higher. How does this happen? Ask our politicians! Fact: Now less than half of the complex's apartments have the old rents and it's getting worse year by year--or better if you are the Real Estate Board of New York!

The Other Yelp Reviews

Yelp can be tricky and bounce reviews for a variety of reasons, like being a member and posting just one review. Very often, however, these reviews hold important truths about what's being reviewed. READ THESE TOO.

BICYCLES, MOPEDS, SCOOTERS, ETC.

Of course, "private property" but "public access" - whatever that means! And if a part of it is public access, do the rules of the city apply to our roads and sidewalks? Or does anything give because this complex is "private property"? Who comes here in case of a fire in one of our buildings? The Stuy Town Fire Brigade?

Hint: Look both ways if you are in the complex. Look on the ground, too!

61.03 Control of dogs and other animals to prevent nuisance. (a) A person who owns, possesses or controls a dog, cat or other animal shall not permit the animal to commit a nuisance on a sidewalk of any public place, on a floor, wall, stairway, sidewalk, lawn, garden or roof of any public or private premises used in common by the public, or on a fence, wall [or], stairway or entranceway of a building abutting on a public place

Banned & Oversize Dog Breeds in Stuy Town

Looks like there is some difficulty in enforcing the ban on certain dog breeds allowed inside Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village. Somehow pitbulls and pitbull mixes have been registered in STPCV and are allowed to be freely walked about the grounds! Registered dogs in the complex are max 50 pounds. Total, if there is more than one! More than two, it's illegal. It's going to get worse, and, face it, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village will never be like it once was.

Follow by Email

Read it and Weep

Current Value of ST/PCV

Was 5.4 Billion Dollars when Tishman Speyer bought the place.Became 1.7 Billion Dollars when Tishman Speyer left, with their tail between their legs. Of course, tenants now have to make up the loss.

Ex-landlord

Rob Speyer

1947 Stuy Town Plaque Honoring Met Life Chairman F.H. Ecker (Removed in 2002 and never seen again)

"... who with the vision of experience and the energy of youth conceived and brought into being this project, and others like it, that families of moderate means might live in health, comfort and dignity in park-like communities and that a pattern might be set of private enterprise productively devoted to public service."

I am writing on behalf of everyone at Tishman Speyer to express how honored we are to become part of your outstanding community. We are a business with deep roots in New York, a true love of our city and a great respect for the neighborhoods that make it special. We are committed to maintaining the unique character and environment that have made Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town such a wonderful place to live for so long. We look forward to providing you an extraordinary level of service and attentiveness that will be the source of pride and satisfaction for the entire community.

Neighborhood Recommendations

New to Stuy Town/Peter Cooper Village? Here are some basic recommendations.

Best supermarket: Associated on 14th St. between 1st Ave. and Ave A. The cheapest prices, fantastic weekly sales, very affordable lunches; solid, responsive management, but earthy. Some of the young female cashiers have attitude to spare, though. May be too far for Peter Cooper residents.

Best gym: Don't waste your money on the Oval Fitness Gym. Instead go to the earthy but real Asser Levy Recreational Center, right above 23rd St on Asser Levy Place (near the FDR Drive). $75 for a year's membership; seniors are almost free. Contains seasonal indoor and outdoor swimming pools, ping-pong table, two pool tables. Called by some rich people who wouldn't get caught going there "the prison gym," and you know why.

A Stuy Town favorite is Lenz's on 20 St. between the 20 St. Loop. The way New York used to be. Be careful of unwanted "pepper" in your food, however. Lenz's got a B grade rating and was temporarily closed down due to an order from the Health Department. Bruno's on First Avenue is more upscale, with a greater selection of food items (higher-priced, too), but was closed down temporarily by the Health Department. Stuy Town's own cafe was closed, too! And not because of all the dogs that hover and piss outside.

Gracefully has two locations, but we prefer for its size the one on 1st Ave. Prices are high and reflect the new tenants that are currently renting Stuy Town and Peter Cooper apartments. ("Do you have a credit card?") We like Gracefully's lunch specials, which are somewhat affordable.

I priced the CVS on 1st Ave near 14st. The non-aerosol hairspray was 20 cents above CVS' own website price, and one of the highest in NY. (Yes, I have hair.) You can save at least a dollar or more buying at another place. So beware. Look around for a better deal on all your items.

I love warm Quaker Oats in the morning. Gristedes is not the place to get it, nor is Associated, though their price is less. Look around!

Macular Degeneration Support Group

If you are currently diagnosed with Macular Degeneration, the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary is offering a support group for you. Conveniently located next to the Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town apartment complex, our group offers the opportunity to share stories with other members, listen to expert guest speakers, and learn coping strategies to reduce stress. Our group runs on the first Wednesday of every month and we would enjoy seeing you there.
Please contact Baptiste Nicolas, Social Work Assistant at 212-979-4105 for further information and to see if this group is right for you!